55: Comparison of the three five-year examinations

After successfully breaking through to an Intermediate Wizard Apprentice, refining Low-level Wizard Potions became a top priority for Gelin, its importance rising to number one.

As for knight combat training... from early May to mid-October in the 14th year of the wizard's path, it had been almost half a year.

After Gelin broke through to an Intermediate Wizard Apprentice, he took the opportunity to request Mentor Jordan to end the combat training.

Mentor Jordan conducted a graduation assessment for Gelin.

The assessment went smoothly... Now, Mentor Jordan found it difficult to defeat Gelin within a hundred moves without using his ultimate techniques.

Gelin's training had reached a bottleneck.

Next, only true exposure to life-and-death situations and extensive slaughter might bring Gelin further progress.

Gelin's combat class thus concluded.

Gelin was very happy to not have to see Mentor Jordan for a while.

Although he had successfully overcome his psychological shadow of Mentor Jordan, Gelin still wanted to stay away from Mentor Jordan for a while... It was December in the 14th year of the wizard's path.

Gelin, who had just passed his third five-year grand examination yesterday, was concentrating on refining a Low-level Wizard Potion—a Low-Level Clarity Potion.

Gelin easily passed all three days of the assessment.

For the third five-year grand examination, Gelin passed the requirements for both Pharmacology and Demonized Plants Cultivation.

After ruining another potion... Gelin stopped to rest, took a sip of water, and couldn't help but recall the past five-year grand examinations...

The former Gelin was a child from the countryside.

He hadn't even been exposed to written education before coming to Plant Heart Wizard Academy.

A child who had grown up wild in the fields, he had a strange obsession with knowledge.

Whenever he went to the city for holidays with his family, Gelin would always run to the city's schoolhouse to listen to the clear sound of reading.

Gelin's remote and backward hometown was in a small mountain town; there was no schoolhouse, and few people even knew how to read...

Since coming to the Wizard Academy, Gelin gained access to a vast number of books and could attend classes in spacious and bright classrooms.

Here, he had lively and friendly classmates and kind, loving mentors.

Gelin, as if arriving in paradise, burst forth with infinite passion and vitality from his small body.

Gelin cherished every day of living and studying at the academy, resolutely fulfilling the academic requirements of his mentors without compromise.

Therefore, Gelin, who had the weakest foundation, managed to achieve the best theoretical scores in the first five-year grand examination—first in the entire grade for all four subjects.

Although his poor Meditation Technique score dragged him down, causing Gelin's overall ranking to be only eighteenth, this was still an incredible achievement.

From zero foundation to the theoretical top among his peers, Gelin only took five years.

He endured many hardships, staying up late to complete countless assignments, yet Gelin still savored it.

The first five-year grand examination was Gelin's highlight moment in life!

It was a peak performance right from the start!

...After the peak came the endless decline.

Gelin watched himself slide step by step into the abyss of degradation...

The second five-year grand examination dealt Gelin a heavy blow.

When he began studying the knowledge for the second five-year period, it was like moving from junior high to high school; both the difficulty of study and teaching methods underwent significant changes.

The course difficulty increased severalfold.

The dialectical requirements for rational thinking multiplied severalfold.

The mentors' teaching style also became more expansive and liberal, and the demands on students' self-study abilities also multiplied severalfold...

All of this had a great impact on Gelin.

His once-proud study methods became outdated.

Everyone had grown up and understood the importance of learning, so they were all studying desperately.

No matter how hard Gelin tried, he couldn't gain much of an advantage.

Inefficient study methods caused Gelin much pain.

Furthermore, Gelin was sitting next to Aili at the time, becoming desk-mates.

Although fourteen or fifteen-year-old Aili hadn't fully matured, she was naturally beautiful, graceful and elegant, and the newly developing Aili always exuded a faint scent of a maiden and a strong female hormonal aura.

This stimulated Gelin, who couldn't help but be distracted, constantly paying attention to Aili's every move, wanting to admire her enchanting and charming girlish figure at all times.

Gelin, frequently distracted in class, missed the opportunity to change his study methods in time, and his grades plummeted in the 6th year of the wizard's path...

Later, after painful lessons and guidance from his mentor, Gelin finally had a sudden realization and refocused on his studies.

But it was too late... At Plant Heart Wizard Academy, falling behind one step meant falling behind every step.

The former Gelin also didn't have a Golden Finger, so he naturally couldn't keep up with others' pace anymore.

A 'learning genius' thus fell!

After more than three years of agonizing pursuit, Gelin finally collapsed on the path of learning, tragically ending his short life...

It wasn't until the transmigrator from Aqua Blue Star replaced Gelin that Gelin embarked on the path to resurgence with the help of the Golden Finger.

But this Gelin was no longer that Gelin...

For the second five-year grand examination, Gelin still went into the test with trepidation, feeling somewhat lacking in confidence.

Coupled with having only just started using the Golden Finger, Gelin barely passed the exam, ranking eighty-sixth in the entire grade.

But by the third five-year grand examination, Gelin found it effortless, merely going through the motions, and he didn't care much about the results.

Not wanting to be too high-profile, Gelin casually achieved a mediocre score.

Being able to control one's score is the mark of a true academic ace.

Gelin now felt very confident and didn't place much importance on the grand examination results; becoming a 3-Star Apprentice Alchemist was Gelin's main goal now.

Even so, the academy's overall score for Gelin still ranked him eighth in the entire grade...

As time went on, Gelin's confidence and strength grew equally strong.

On one hand, the special effects of Gelin's Golden Finger became increasingly helpful to Gelin as he used it more.

On the other hand, Gelin was also a determined individual who could endure hardship; to maximize the use of the Hundredfold Harvest Golden Finger, Gelin actively participated in the internal competition, squeezing every minute for study, which was by no means easy.

It was precisely because of Gelin's active cooperation that Gelin's growth rate would become faster and faster.

It was like rolling a snowball down from the top of a snow mountain; the further it rolled, the larger the snowball became.

Gelin's progress was precisely this kind of snowballing accumulation...

Gelin had already started studying the courses for the fourth five-year plan.

Moreover, he had already reached the second year, and according to Gelin's plan, he estimated he could complete all the courses for the fourth and fifth plans in one year during the 15th year of the wizard's path.

This time, Gelin only chose Pharmacology; Gelin was confident and capable of passing the fourth five-year grand examination for Pharmacology, so he didn't need Demonized Plants Cultivation as a backup...

After drinking water and resting for a good while, Gelin cleared his mind of thoughts.

His future path also became clearer.

The ideal has not yet been achieved, and classmates still need to work hard!

After sighing, Gelin once again immersed himself in a new round of potion refining...